River to River, Indian Film Festival 2011: the location

The city of Florence is once again hosting the River to River, 2011 Indian Film Festival ( River to River, Florence Indian Film Festival 2011 ), now in its eleventh edition. The Festival begins on Friday 2 December, ending on 8 December . River to River 2011 was created thanks to the patronage of the Embassy of India in Rome and under the protection of the Toscana-Mediateca Regionale Foundation, within the Fifty Days of International Cinema in Florence .

The screenings of the films will be held at the Odeon, a characteristic 1920s cinema located in the historic center of the city, in Piazza Strozzi, a few steps from Piazza Duomo, ten minutes walk from the Santa Maria Novella station.

River to River, Indian Film Festival 2011: the contents

River to River is the first festival in the world entirely dedicated to Indian cinema and films about India. The first edition of the festival dates back to 2001, and since then many films about India have been received, including others from neighboring countries, such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh . India is known for the great cauldron-masala represented by Bollywood mainstream cinema. The Bollywood film industry can produce up to 800 films a year; they are films with traditional contents, loves with happy endings, inevitable choirs, very long scenographic dances, never sex or kisses.

The goal of the River to River Festival is instead to let everyone know about the B-Side of Indian cinema, the parallel and independent side of production: feature films, short films, documentaries that tell an India often far from musicals, sequins and with a happy ending imposed by the commercial trend. This type of cinema often shows an imperfect India, makes fun of some patterns, but always with delicacy, laughs, cries and eats flowers showing also the cruel side of a country that hides nothing.

River to River, Indian Film Festival 2011: tastings of the program

The Florentine Film Festival has contributed, since the first years of its birth, to making known Indian films that have subsequently been awarded by international critics. For example, this is the film Monsoon Wedding (2001) by Mira Nair, which won the Golden Lion in Venice. On the same theme, arranged marriages, but in a more dramatic version, remember Devdas (2002) by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, with the beautiful actress Aishwarya Ra i, who was also screened at Cannes. Meanwhile and in parallel the Festival grows and comes to host leading personalities such as the Bengali actor and director Rahul Bose, author of Everybody says I'm fine!, in turn awarded at the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2003 .

Among more or less known names of journalists, actors and directors who have alternated as guests over the years, and who can be read on the dedicated pages of the River to River website , Indian Film Festival, we come to 2010. During the tenth edition we remember Aparna Sern, author, among others, of The Japanese Wife, a veritable long-distance love poem, and Onir, director of I Am, born in far away Bhutan. This film, based on four short stories, explores delicate themes, such as child abuse and same-sex relationships. The film was awarded, as well as at the Indian Film Festival in Florence, also as Best Film at the London Asian Film Festival.

Dulcis in fundo , the documentary contribution is omnipresent: ayurveda, holistic medicine, yoga, meditation, Indian traditions . The contribution of India in the vast field of natural care is considerable and touches different sectors (nutrition, sports, massages, treatments) and receives space between the projections. India is first and foremost a culture in which the concept of health, food, life, disease, nature, medicine and death are not split, but interact in multiple ways, harmoniously establishing themselves in the confused and dusty everyday life of the streets over there, here admirably brought back to the big screen.

River to River, Indian Film Festival 2011: the word to the director

A brief interview stolen from the director of the River to River, Selvaggia Velo :

When was the Film Festival born and how did it evolve?

• The Festival was born in 2001 as the first in the world dedicated to Indian films and India. Over the years he has shown the different aspects of the planet India, also inviting the protagonists to tell their experiences on the set.

How does the 2011 edition proceed?

• This year River to River turns eleven and, with many difficulties due to public funding cuts, it will be held anyway, starting from December 2nd to 8th at the Odeon cinema in Florence.

Can you tell some gems in preview?

• We are still finishing the selection of films in competition, so I can only say that the Festival will dedicate the 2011 retrospective to the Nobel Prize for Literature Rabindranath Tagore, 150 years after his birth in 1861, an important date also for our country that celebrated the 150th anniversary of national unity this year.